Creating a Web Site

The Web Site Design Process

Planning and Communication

This is one of the most crucial aspects of building your site and will happen in one or more brainstorming sessions.

When we meet, I will ask you questions like:  What is the goal of your web site? What’s important to your site visitors? What generates you revenue? What colors do you want to use? What mood do you want your site to reflect? How many pages do you want? I may ask you for some example sites that convey the same “look and feel” you seek. We will also talk about keywords for your site, as they are in integral part of search engine indexing.

All of this Q&A helps me develop a site that is truly an online extension of your business.

After this meeting, I will give you an estimate and contract. Once this is signed and returned with a 50% deposit, work on your site can commence.

You should start thinking about content for your site at this point. Visual Adventures offers full-service web site copywriting for an additional charge. If you would like to use our copywriting services, you’re working with the best in the online space. We’ll be happy to have a pro do the writing for you. Just ask!

Design Phase

Once I receive your deposit payment and contract, I will design a mock-up of your site. A mock-up is a static design with no interactivity and placeholder content. Once you receive this, I need your feedback. You love it/hate it/want to use a different color scheme, different pictures? Now is the time to communicate these things. The more we communicate, the less time it takes me to build your site and the less it costs you.

Hey, I’m just being honest! It can be costly to make major changes down the road.

Building and Testing

Now I’m ready to start coding your site and test it on the various web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.). Different web browsers display web pages differently. Even different versions of the same browser will sometimes display a page differently. It’s important to test sites and make code adjustments so that your site will display as close to the same as possible on all of the major web browsers.

I will want to have all your content at this point. I use CSS-based coding techniques plus a few other tricks to make sites that are easy to update and perform well in search engines.  This is currently considered the most preferred way to create a web site.

I’ll probably send you links to the site throughout this process so you can check it out and give me feedback.

Launch

Now it’s time to make your site live and begin the marketing process. We always use search engine-friendly code, but remember: having a web site and your web site being FOUND are two entirely different things. Be sure to ask us about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) options and referrals. We also offer local search engine optimization services to help you get found faster by people searching for businesses in their own backyards.

Curious about costs involved in building a web site? Don’t forget to read this handy list of costs to budget.